Dáil sitting next Wednesday cancelled due to strike by public sector workers

The Dáil sitting scheduled for next Wednesday has been cancelled because of a planned one-day national strike by public sector workers.A majority of the employees in Leinster House are members of public sector unions that have signalled a day-long strike on Wednesday, followed by further industrial action the following week.The Government had provisionally scheduled a full day of Dáil business for Wednesday. However, this was contingent on staff at Leinster House being available to facilitate the sitting.An emergency meeting of the Dáil business committee is scheduled for Saturday afternoon to discuss the situation.READ MOREA spokesman for Government chief whip Mary Butler said the committee would discuss parliamentary business for Tuesday and Thursday only, meaning there would be no sitting on Wednesday.Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan welcomed the decision to suspend the sitting. “I am pleased that the Government has seen sense and has climbed down,” he said.He added that the Social Democrats and other opposition TDs had made clear they would not cross a picket line during Wednesday’s strike action. O’Callaghan also criticised Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s initial response to the dispute.Martin had said Dáil business should go ahead next Wednesday, though Labour and Sinn Féin said they would not pass pickets at Leinster House. Government chief whip Mary Butler, who is responsible for proposing the business of the Dáil, told a meeting of the Dáil’s business committee on Thursday that the Dáil should sit as normal for three days next week.Labour whip Duncan Smith welcomed the move after Labour called for TDs not to cross the picket line, and called on the Government to now “engage properly” on future pay for public sector workers.“Labour made it clear we would not be passing a picket line outside the Dáil next Wednesday, and called on the Government not to go through a Dáil sitting that would force their own backbenchers to break a picket,” he said.“This action would also have been at the expense of our own private members time debate. The revised Dáil schedule circulated today recognises that principled position but does not change the underlying issue that has led to this strike.”Preparations are under way for the strike, which will see more than 300,000 public sector workers undertake a 24-hour work stoppage in pursuit of a new public sector pay deal, though essential services will be maintained.Another strike is scheduled for the following Wednesday, while senior union figures are privately warning of escalation of their action in November if negotiations do not get under way in the coming weeks.Widespread disruption is inevitable as schools and other public services also close. There is little expectation in trade union or Government circles that the strike can be averted at this stage, with senior union figures stressing the frustration felt among their members.The Taoiseach has said there was no need for the strikes and that the €1.2 billion provision in the budget this week was a basis for negotiations, but unions dismissed the figure as insufficient.